Monthly Archives: April 2016

See the National Weather Service forecast for Boulder, CO. I was hoping that cold and rainy conditions for a few days would drive the unwashed, pickled idjits off the wall in front of the Mexican restaurant in the 4900 block of N. Broadway and away from the corner of U.S. 36 — but they’ve now discovered that the chain link fence surrounding this new building site across the street has a gap for workers to walk through, and it’s left open 24 hours a day. That’s where the bums stay overnight, no doubt peeing and crapping on the floor inside along with leaving their cigarette butts and empty vodka bottles behind. When I came walking by at 5AM, registered sex offender Austin Gibson and his pal Steve were stumbling out of this private property, and they weren’t packing out any trash bags:

Remember, this creepy old alcoholic child molester would NOT even be in this neighborhood if he hadn’t been in the Transition Program at Boulder Shelter for the Homeless at one point, until he was kicked out for misbehavior. But once there, the losers keep returning like a bad penny to spread Peace and Joy to business owners, workers, and residents of the nearby Dakota Ridge subdivision. Drunk Donna, evicted from Housing First, is another fine example of a sociopathic bum that the clueless do-gooders want you to overlook.

It’s always gratifying to the Homeless Philosopher when staff members or volunteers or homeless clients at BSH introduce themselves to me and say that they read this blog. It happened again this morning, and as always it brightened my day.

I’ll e-mail this blog post to Boulder City Council, but will leave it to some other concerned citizen to notify Boulder PD and / or Boulder County Sheriff’s Office (I’m not entirely clear about which law enforcement agency has jurisdiction over this construction site). City officers and county deputies already know that I have no problem with helping stop the wrongdoers whenever they appear in this area; it would be advantageous for more folks to get involved in reporting crimes, however.

We can be sure that Boulder’s homeless shelter / services industry will continue to enable the riffraff, even as they tell the local news media that everything is fine.

Tonight at my OUTDOOR campsite: whatever is on sale and looks tasty at King Soopers on Table Mesa.

This is the first time I’ve seen mice with this coloration in all the years I’ve been camping outdoors in Boulder, CO and its environs. I have to say that they’re beautiful rodents, brown over white being much more pleasing to the eye than plain old gray. My new campmate was not afraid of my flashlight, so I got a very good look at him (or her last) night, eating the Cap’n Crunch I put out. Also a tiny piece of extra sharp cheddar cheese from King Soopers, which I hated to part with . . .

If Boulder’s current batch of greedy homeless shelter / services providers were to embrace the Tiny House Community concept, there can be no doubt at all that they’d f*** it up just like everything else they touch. NEW LEADERSHIP MUST COME FIRST! See Tour of Eugene, OR homeless camps gives Boulder issues to consider in the Daily Camera. It absolutely makes me despair to see that clown Greg Harms, executive director of Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, in this picture:

Right now, Boulderites are totally brainwashed into believing that the best way to either “end” or to “address” homelessness is with hugely expensive projects that help only a very small percentage of those on the streets here. A Tiny House Community could focus on Boulder County’s own homeless people — NOT transients from Denver and elsewhere — at far less cost; it’s certainly no different appearance-wise than the many personal storage unit facilities you’ll find scattered everywhere in Boulder.

The battery in my $8 watch failed overnight, but I seem to have a pretty good internal clock besides knowing how to use other signs to tell the time at my campsite. As I walked across the Bustop Gentleman’s Club parking lot a little after 5AM (the first SKIP bus was arriving) to BSH, I noted the presence of four Boulder PD units surrounding the entrance to this den of naughty nekkidness. They were taking lots of photos of the front door, and also working inside. It wasn’t until just before 6 that they finished up and drove away. BTW, one mentally ill bum tried to search for cigarette butts in front of the club, but two police officers quickly shooed him away from their crime scene. I can’t believe anyone is so stupid that they wouldn’t understand they ought to stay far away from any spot in the middle of several police vehicles, and this bum might not have heeded yellow tape, either, had Boulder’s finest chosen to put it up in this case.

Time once again to start flying this sign, when I’m on the corner of N. Broadway & U.S. 36:

HELP THE SOBER

NOT THE PICKLED

I’m sick of seeing that creepy old alcoholic child molester, Austin Gibson, staggering up and down the median and never buying anything with the $$$ he receives except rotgut vodka and cigarettes. He also receives a monthly disability check from Uncle Sugar and other kinds of financial assistance, so I wonder why he even panhandles at all:

We already know what it is that chronically homeless transients who flock to our fair city are doing by day and by night — but have you wondered just what goes on with those clients in 1175 Lee Hill Housing First and Boulder Shelter’s Transition Program, located next door to each other? The ones who, so we’re told, are trying to get their lives back on track with the help of millions of dollars from both public and private sources?

No, don’t bother asking Gail Promboin (L), who sold out the neighborhood and her neighbors to buddy up with Betsey Martens of Boulder Housing Partners (R) . . .

The Homeless Philosopher has lived in this area for over eight years now, and I’ll tell you what the Housing First and BSH Transition Program Posers are doing: Yesterday, when I arrived at my spot along the wall in front of the Mexican restaurant in the 4900 block of N. Broadway, there were no fewer than seven (7) inebriates / potheads gathered there. NOBODY was “flying a sign” on the corner of U.S. 36; they were just drinking and smoking weed and holding their typically loud and stupid conversations in the middle of what is intended to be a business / industrial district and a residential neighborhood. Two of the seven were HF residents (who are on thin ice by their own admission), one is in the Transition Program, and the other four (including one registered child molester) were street bums with varying amounts of time logged in Boulder, CO.

Outside of the confines of the facilities themselves, there is NO supervision by HF case managers or BSH staff — and when you make a complaint by any means nobody in authority takes note of it. To the contrary, Betsey Martens and Boulder Housing Partners issue a press release stating that all is well. Our worthless local news media goes along with the do-gooder party line, and meanwhile millions more dollars are being raked in by the homeless shelter / services industry.

WTF?

I do what I can to sound the alarm on this blog, and every day I’m there I pick up the trash these bums leave behind. Believe me, the situation is continuing to get worse every year!

I’ll e-mail this blog post to Boulder City Council, but it doesn’t seem that a majority of its members are interested in doing anything for folks who own businesses and work or live in this north Boulder neighborhood. Truly, it’s become the city’s de facto Homeless Ghetto. I don’t consider this any surprise, because all BCC members are elected at-large and nobody holding elective office at present has any personal stake in this part of Boulder.

I enjoyed the thunderstorm which began at 12:40AM and lasted only 15 minutes, with some hail toward the end. When I got up and crawled out from my burrow before 5AM, there were still hailstones on top of my tarp, but they had melted away in the surrounding grassy areas; this indicates that my inexpensive Walmart tarp is doing an effective job at keeping heat inside for my comfort, and indeed I slept very well after the brief period of thunder and lightning.

There was another rain shower before 6AM, but as long as the sky doesn’t leak for hours all of my gear will stay dry.

I have a box of Cap’n Crunch to snack on tonight, and if your name is Jessica Alba you’re invited to share . . .

Sad news that one of the longtime panhandlers at N. Broadway & U.S. 36 has passed away, another casualty of years of abusing rotgut vodka: Shouting Joe from St. Louis had been suffering from cirrhosis of the liver since last summer, and when I last saw him a couple of weeks ago he looked as though he could die at any moment. Please, people, do NOT give cash to those homeless folks who are obviously under the influence while flying a sign, NOR for that matter lend your support to the 1175 Lee Hill [Death House], where at least six residents have died since this facility opened — a figure confirmed by two current residents there. Like me, Shouting Joe was a year-round camper but he would have met the same end in Housing First, a “program” which enables alcoholism by allowing clients to drink in their apartments.

I find it despicable that the do-gooders pretend to offer an option for sobriety, when the environment at 1175 Lee Hill makes that impossible to maintain:

I’d rather pass on outdoors, too, as Shouting Joe and many others here in Boulder, CO have done . . . Of course, I intend to be sober when I meet the Reaper, and sobriety disqualifies me from gaining an apartment at any Housing First facility.

When I arrived at Boulder Shelter for the Homeless before its 6AM opening on Saturday morning, I found that someone had smashed the glass out of the north door where we hardy outdoor-types enter. A temporary fix was already in place, consisting of particle board and screws, and with a sign stating that we should use the west door. In the past, troublemakers have thrown rocks through windows at BSH and I’ll guarantee you all of this vandalism has been committed by transients who have no ties to this city, and therefore lack any respect for others. You might think the do-gooders would learn a valuable lesson from these incidents, but they continue to embrace the creed of More Homeless People = More Money. Replacing broken windows and doors is small potatoes when there are so many darn fools who will donate Big $$$ to make themselves Feel Good:

A possibly wet forecast for the next few days in Boulder, but brief showers are never a problem for the Homeless Philosopher.

A wonderfully invigorating COLD shower this morning at BSH, as the high-tech enormously expensive hot water heater breaks down yet again, as it seems to do at least twice each year (although NEVER in the heat of summer). The typical World War II-vintage boilers I’ve known in older buildings are much more reliable, easily maintained, but certainly NOT hip and trendy enough to suit Boulderites.

1) Death toll at 1175 Lee Hill Housing First in Boulder, CO may have risen to six. I need to speak to another source to confirm what I heard this morning from a resident of the facility, but this would be right in line with what has gone on at Karluk Manor in Anchorage, AK (that city’s Housing First program for chronically homeless alcoholics / drug addicts with a dual diagnosis of mental illness; a more recent story indicates that there have now been eleven deaths there since it opened in December of 2011). That Boulder Housing Partners and Boulder Shelter for the Homeless (which collaborated on this 31-unit project with an initial cost now estimated at $8M) would seek to cover up a shockingly poor track record is no surprise, either, but what in blazes is wrong with the local news media? Are Daily Camera “reporters” deaf, blind, and stupid?

2) Disturbance requiring intervention of Boulder PD this morning at the illegal RV and car camp located on Front Range Dr. just west of Boulder Shelter for the Homeless. Every spring or summer these folks are told to move along, when the volume of complaints to police from neighboring businesses and residents becomes too great to be ignored — but BSH itself apparently couldn’t care less about one more undesirable feature of the Homeless Ghetto they’ve created.

I’ve waited since April 3rd, the day I arrived back in Boulder, CO from my long respite with friends at their home in nearby Longmont, to gather enough info to write this piece. Turns out, I needn’t have waited more than a day.

Still FUBAR, with only ten more nights until the emergency overnight dorms are closed. I haven’t heard whether or not the greedy yahoos running this bedbug-infested dump want to have another Summer [Bum] Program, as they did last year for the benefit of the worst-behaved transients who were hanging around the neighborhood all summer, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit — more inappropriate compassion in action!

I’ve thought about contacting novelist Lee Child, with an idea about his popular Jack Reacher (homeless ex-Army MP) character visiting Boulder to set things right . . . Sample below:

Reacher said nothing. Grabbing the child molester by the collar with one huge hand and by the waistband of his sagging pants with the other, Reacher turned him upside down and shoved him face-first into a shelter toilet that hadn’t been cleaned in at least a month. The perv said nothing, either, but did make some gurgling noises.

“What’s that?” asked the 6’5″, 250 lb. ex-Army MP as he pulled the perv up so he might gasp for breath. “Here, maybe another drink of water will help!” Other homeless men were laughing at the spectacle, except for the registered sex offenders who wisely ran for their lives.

In real life, unfortunately, BSH staff would intervene to protect the rapist, banning the protector of innocent children from the facility (probably forever).

The first few days playing the role of humble beggar on the corner of N. Broadway & U.S. 36 I found myself alone, and did very well; passersby remembered me from the years I’ve been there. Then, during the second week, Drunk Donna (an evicted 1175 Lee Hill Housing First resident) and a new crew of miscreants showed up, and Donna herself is now using the Fake Wheelchair Scam. I declare, swear, and affirm that this silly [rhymes with “witch”] can walk better than the Homeless Philosopher, at least on the rare occasions when she’s sober. Why these guys will push Donna back and forth on the median is a mystery to me; they could likely make as much $$$ by themselves. I continue to hope that one enabler might — accidentally or otherwise — push her wheelchair out in front of a truck.

Look for my weather-beaten sign as I’m standing there: “VOTE SNOOPY”.

Weather was warm and dry the first week back, and I slept very well at my campsite, the cries of coyotes from distant quarters and the hooting of owls close by being restful music to me. A following spell of cold and wet has just ended, so I expect a few more nights of good sleep. I’m located far enough away from the pickled idjits, 1/4 mile or more, that they don’t disturb me:

Morpheus, God of Dreams in Greek mythology

A friend pointed out the latest scam from Isabel McDevitt at Bridge House: Boulder wins $200K to train homeless to repurpose trees infested by ash borer as reported in the Daily Camera. Well, I won’t try to deny this is a stroke of genius! Think of it: Transients flock to Colorado for “legal” marijuana, and now BH will teach them to make their own pipes, which might be sold on Pearl Street Mall and at other venues frequented by the dazed and confused. I’d suggest that those who intend to sleep at either BSH or Boulder Outreach for Homeless Overflow in the future could also be potential customers for Bridge House’s handcrafted wooden clubs to ward off Giant Mutant Bedbugs and other vermin encountered nightly.

Model demonstrates custom wooden pipe

She deserves every penny, too — LOL!

Here’s a disturbing but true tale I heard involving Boulder’s Municipal Court, a serial petty offender, and Bridge House: One of the guys hanging out with Drunk Donna was ticketed for trespassing at private property over on 30th St. here in Boulder, and when he went before the judge his “punishment” was to visit BH’s so-called resource center to learn about helping himself to all of the Free Stuff being given away . . . All that’s required is for BH staff to sign off on a paper to be returned to the court, regardless of whether the offender chooses to follow through with anything like the Ready to Work program. And this bum has been here for years! For the one trespassing ticket he finally received, he’s no doubt trespassed dozens of times along with other petty offenses of various kinds.

This sort of a slap-on-the-wrist is the do-gooders’ Wet Dream. Far better to spend a measly $5 of taxpayer funds to put each of these offenders on the RTD bus back to Denver, with a sack lunch and a bottle of water to-go.